


Warmth

by carolinablu85



Category: As the World Turns
Genre: Future Fic, M/M, Snowed In
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-02
Updated: 2012-06-02
Packaged: 2017-11-06 16:18:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/420860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carolinablu85/pseuds/carolinablu85
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>“This was the best bad idea we’ve ever had,” Luke announced through chattering teeth.</i> It takes some accidentally drastic measures to get them back together...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Warmth

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a nuke_anon challenge on LJ, incorporating the prompts "Games", "Dragon", "Psychic", and "Hello". Thanks for reading! :)

“This was the best bad idea we’ve ever had,” Luke announced through chattering teeth.   
  
“Have we ever had a good idea?” Noah’s voice behind him was muffled, his face buried in Luke’s shoulder. It was the only part of him not shaking.   
  
“It’s too cold to think,” he answered, as though that made sense. It did in his head. He tried to keep his shaking to a minimum, though he couldn’t tell where his stopped and Noah’s began. It was that cold. “How long’s it been?”   
  
Noah reluctantly brought his arm out of the blanket wrapped around them, checked his watch, and quickly burrowed back in. “Three hours and ten minutes.”   
  
“How long till we freeze to death?”   
  
“Twenty minutes ago,” Noah mumbled.   
  
Luke tried to laugh, he really did. He knew Noah wanted him to. But nothing came out. “Lucky us.”   
  
***   
  
_Three hours, forty-two minutes ago..._   
  
Luke gritted his teeth, pointedly ignoring the skeptical looks he knew, he  _knew_ , Noah was trying not to throw his way. “It’s fine,” he grumbled.   
  
“Okay,” Noah tried to say evenly.    
  
“If it’s okay then why are you gripping your seatbelt like it’s the only thing keeping you in the car?” Luke pointed out without tearing his eyes away from the road.   
  
“If it’s fine then why are you gripping the steering wheel just as hard?” Noah fired back.   
  
“Because I’m trying to keep us from sliding off the road into a ditch and dying,” Luke let his foot off the gas as the wheels started to slide once more before straightening out again.   
  
“Oh yeah, that totally sounds fine.”   
  
“Shut up,” Luke snapped. “This wouldn’t have happened if you had flown in yesterday, you know.”   
  
Now he definitely could feel Noah’s glare. “I must’ve forgotten I have magical weather powers. My bad.”   
  
“Shut up,” Luke said again, softer this time. Maybe it wasn’t Noah’s fault that a freak blizzard decided to show up in Illinois the same day he did, and maybe it wasn’t Noah’s fault that Luke insisted on going to pick him up at the airport in his car and not Holden’s truck. He just hated driving that thing- it was big and stick shift and no power steering and Luke hated it.   
  
But he was pretty sure it was Noah’s fault he was in a bad mood.   
  
And the fact that Noah had the power to put him in a bad mood had him in a worse mood. Which was also Noah’s fault.   
  
The thing was, Luke pouted to himself as he slowed down to a crawl for what should have been a normal turn in the road, if not for the blankets of snow and ice covering it, he and Noah shouldn’t have bad moods between them anymore. Slowly, slowly, over the last year, they’d gotten back to a good place. Talking almost every day, about almost everything.   
  
Almost everything.   
  
Anything romantic was somehow strictly off limits. Whether that was Luke’s unspoken decree or Noah’s, neither of them knew. And they couldn’t discuss that, because they couldn’t discuss  _this_ , whatever was (still? always?) going on between them. Noah was visiting Oakdale for the first time in 8 months, since Casey and Ali’s wedding, and Luke knew nearly everything that Noah had been up to in that time... except, maybe, men. Like, he didn’t know if Noah was dating someone, seeing someone,  _liked_  someone. If Noah maybe-   
  
And looking back, Luke would also blame this moment on Noah, because it was thoughts of him that kept Luke from seeing the patch of black ice until the car was already spinning across it. “Shit!” Panicking, he slammed on the brakes, which just caused the car to fishtail even more, wheels locking and sliding across the road, finally coming to a stop in the ditch on the other side.   
  
For a second Luke sat still, staring out the windshield, breathing hard. He looked over at Noah, whose hands were braced against the door and dashboard. Noah looked back at him, eyes wide. “You okay?” he asked, first thing out of his mouth.   
  
Luke just nodded. “Shit,” he said again, because it felt good. He turned the ignition, and after a few tense moments, the car started. But that’s as much luck as he was going to get, apparently. The wheels whined and churned, but no dice. No movement. A second attempt, and a third. Nothing. “Um...”   
  
Noah actually smiled. Why, Luke had no idea. “Hold on, let me see if the tires are stuck in something.”   
  
“How are you going to- Noah!” Luke kinda just stared as Noah actually opened the door and climbed out of the car. Into a snow-drifty-ditch.    
  
“Try again,” he heard Noah’s shout even through the closed door.    
  
Luke turned the ignition again, hit the gas pedal slowly, but still no luck. Nothing moved. After another minute or two, the passenger door opened, letting in Noah and a burst of freezing cold air. “Well?”   
  
Noah started brushing snow off his shoulders, blowing into his hands to warm them back up. “Not good.”   
  
His hair was dusted with snowflakes, and Luke itched to brush them away. And almost missed what Noah said. “Oh. Um, how ‘not good’ are we talking?”   
  
Noah scrunched up one side of his face, peering out the windshield. Without the wipers going, snow was already starting to pile on. “We’re too far away to walk in this. I think we’re going to have to call for help.”   
  
Luke groaned even as he fished out his phone, nervously eyeing the one measly little bar of reception and last bit of battery he had. “I’ll try the farm. You try my mom’s house.” Despite the cold, his stomach felt a little warm at the way Noah just nodded and went through his speed dials. Noah knew these numbers, had for years. There was something nice about that.   
  
No answer at the farm or Lily’s house. The tow company had a busy signal. Luke left one frantic, slightly bitchy, voicemail on his dad’s cell and then settled back in his seat with a sigh. “Well, this is great.”   
  
Noah grunted his agreement, reaching over to turn the car off. Luke was about to protest before remembering every news report he’d ever heard about carbon monoxide and people dying and snowed-in exhaust pipes and whatever. Okay, point to Noah. He looked over at him. “Now what? We’re going to freeze in here.” Noah opened his mouth to answer, then immediately shut it. Luke had to smile, “What?”   
  
“We could, um, I mean, we probably should...” Noah rolled his eyes at himself. “Share body heat,” he finished in a rush. “It’s going to get colder and, you know...” He shrugged, looking down at his hands. “It’s what you’re supposed to do in these situations,” he mumbled.   
  
Luke was somewhere between laughing and stuttering himself. He settled for a smile, one he hoped was easygoing. “Makes sense,” he said quietly, if a little unsteadily. “Backseat?”   
  
Noah looked up at him then, eyes searching, trying to gauge Luke’s mood. Whatever he saw must have been enough, because he nodded, offered a nervous smile, and turned, crawling into the backseat. Once he was turned, Luke closed his eyes, letting out a breath slowly through his nose. Okay. He could do this.   
  
He climbed into the backseat after Noah and pulled out the blanket he had stored under the seat. Lightly pushing Noah back into the corner, he took another readying breath and sat in front of him, back-to-chest, spreading the blanket over both of them.    
  
Okay.   
  
He could do this.   
  
Noah was tense behind him for a minute, then slowly relaxed, his arms coming around Luke’s middle to hold him there, burrowing under the blanket as much as he could without crowding Luke. Luke pulled his gloves on tighter, just to give his hands something to do.   
  
It took a few minutes of silence- heavy, pointed silence- before he had to say something. Anything. “Want to play a game?”   
  
Noah jumped a little behind him. “Do a what?”   
  
“Play a game,” Luke repeated, twisting enough to look up at Noah’s face. For a second his brain flashed back to two years ago, to a different time, to a pond and a blanket on the shore and Noah sitting behind up, smiling down at him, leaning down to- He shook himself free. “We have to do something to pass the time, right? Otherwise you’re going to, you know, think too much.”   
  
Noah was staring at him, wary and maybe a little confused. “I think too much?”   
  
Luke grinned. “I may not know everything, but I know that.” He patted Noah’s arm and then left his hand there against Noah’s wrist. “So. A game.”   
  
“I Spy something white,” Noah mumbled. Luke could feel him relaxing even more. Good.   
  
“Sarcasm is very unbecoming,” he lectured, knocking his heel back into Noah’s shin. “No. I don’t know. How about Never Have I Ever?”   
  
Noah’s laugh rumbled between them. “We don’t have anything to drink.”   
  
“You’re thinking too much again,” Luke smacked his arm this time. “I’ll go first. Never have I ever been to Hawaii.”   
  
There was a pause. “Do I take a fake drink or something?”   
  
“Or something?” Luke parroted back, trying to imitate Noah’s voice. Noah pinched him in the side, and he retaliated with another kick to his shins. “Your turn.”   
  
“Never have I ever seen a cartoon in the movie theaters,” Noah offered. His hands, gloveless, curled in under the blankets, trying to fight the cold. Luke really really wanted to hold them.   
  
Instead, he sighed. “Fine. I fake-drink.”   
  
He could  _feel_  Noah’s smile. “What was the last one you saw?”   
  
“The computer one, where they train dragons and stuff.” Luke’s face was starting to ache from the cold. He pulled the blanket up a little higher to hide his chin and mouth in it. “Ethan wanted to see it.”   
  
“Sure he did,” Noah teased. Before Luke could argue back, he nudged Luke with his shoulder. “Your turn.”   
  
“Never have I ever been to a psychic,” was the first thing that popped into his head.   
  
Noah snorted. “Never have I ever believed they exist,” he replied. “You have to fake-drink again.”   
  
“How do you know I believe in them?”    
  
“Because that’s you,” Noah said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “You believe in stuff when no one else does. Even when people tell you not to. You...” he trailed off, and Luke could almost imagine he felt the heat rising off Noah’s blush. It made him want to nuzzle back into it, for the heat and for Noah. “You believe in stuff,” he said again.   
  
“You do too,” Luke reminded him, but couldn’t quite get himself to remind him  _how._  How Noah had left for LA still believing there was a chance for them. “Don’t you?” And now, over a year later, Luke was almost physically dying to know if Noah still felt that way. If he still believed in them. And he wondered what he’d say if Noah asked him the same.   
  
More and more, Luke thought he might answer yes.   
  
But they both stayed silent.   
  
***   
  
And three hours passed, slowly and unbelievably cold. It even got them over the tiny bit of awkwardness, as huddling together was the only thing keeping them even remotely warm. Noah curled more and more around him, his face ducking down into Luke’s shoulder. Luke pulled the blanket tighter over both of them, holding Noah’s hands in his to try and share the glove’s warmth. Noah’s joke about ‘twenty minutes ago’ didn’t feel that far-fetched.   
  
“Never have I ever been this cold,” he groaned, watching his breath fog up the air.   
  
“No fake-drink,” he heard Noah faintly. “I think the snow’s not falling as heavy.”   
  
“For all the good it does us,” he grumbled. “Never have I ever liked that you always look on the bright side of things.”   
  
He felt Noah’s attempt at a laugh. “Never have I ever missed you bitching about the most inconsequential thing.”   
  
He tried to laugh too, smacking one of Noah’s hands. He waited for Noah’s retaliation, but there was none. “Noah?” he turned his head quickly, half-afraid Noah had passed out or something.   
  
But no, Noah was staring out the window. Not at anything in particular, Luke could tell. He used to always do that- look out and away instead of at Luke. It usually happened right before he said something like- “That’s a lie.”   
  
Luke frowned. “What’s a lie?”   
  
“That I haven’t missed you bitching about stuff.” Even quieter, “I miss everything. I miss a lot.”   
  
Luke was feeling a whole different kind of frozen now. “Me too,” he whispered. Noah didn’t react, and Luke wasn’t sure if it was because he didn’t hear Luke or he was trying not to.   
  
“I miss your green shirt. The one with the hood. And I miss making you lattes.” Noah still wasn’t looking at him, not even when Luke turned even more, his whole body to the side so he could see Noah better. “I miss watching you lecture people when they’re wrong. I miss you telling me I’m good at stuff.” He stopped, looking down, still at nothing.   
  
“I miss your laugh,” Luke picked up where he left off. “That really deep one, the one where it’s like you just can’t help yourself. I miss the way you look at me, the way it makes me feel. I miss opening my eyes in the morning and seeing you.”   
  
“You do?” Noah bit his lip, looking out at the window again. “I mean, we’ve been doing pretty well- good enough- as friends lately, Luke. I wasn’t sure you-”   
  
Luke interrupted him with a quick, soft kiss to the side of his face. “So. Okay. Since we’ve known each other, we’ve done some stupid things. Some  _great_  things,” he grinned, “but some stupid things too. But, seriously, even with all that? I’ve never stopped loving you, Noah. Never. I thought... I thought with how well we’ve been getting along lately, and you haven’t mentioned anything about us getting back together, and I’ve already made you wait so long, I thought maybe-”   
  
Noah pulled his hand out of Luke’s, braved the cold outside the blanket, and touched Luke’s face. Finally looked at him. “Never stopped, Luke. I’m still waiting. I’ll always wait. Okay? Even if- if you move on to someone else, I don’t care. I’m waiting anyway. Because my life is with you. I love you. I’m supposed to be with you. I don’t want to find someone else or love someone else.”   
  
“Noah-” Luke smiled, laughed a little at the way Noah could be so freakishly earnest and expressive when he let himself be.   
  
“No. I’m  _always_  going to want you, Luke. This is all your call. And I don’t mean that to be any pressure on you, I don’t. I just, I- I want you to know I’m going to be here. For you. Forever.”   
  
“Noah,” he said again, more firmly this time. As much as he loved when Noah actually babbled, he had something he needed to say.   
  
“What?” Noah asked, looking somehow both resolute and nervous.   
  
Luke turned just a little more into him. “Kiss me.”   
  
Noah looked surprised for about half a second, then he smiled, pulling Luke in with the hand still on his face. Despite the way they were frozen, heat quickly spread across Luke’s face. It was just a press of lips at first, simple, sweet.    
  
Then Luke tipped his chin up even more, opening his mouth, and Noah was there to meet him, nipping at his bottom lip, parting so Luke’s tongue could taste him. Luke framed his face with both gloved hands, holding him still, savoring each and every  _second_  that he had with Noah again. He promised himself, right then, that he wasn’t going to mess with it this time.   
  
They pulled back slowly, catching their breaths, the fog mixing together. Luke leaned his forehead against Noah’s, smiling. “I missed that too.”   
  
“Yeah,” Noah’s voice cracked. “Yeah, me too.”   
  
He smiled again, moved his hands to cover Noah’s ears, warm them up a little bit. “Your lips are turning blue,” he said, a little worried.   
  
Noah just grinned back at him. “Then kiss me again.”   
  
“How is that going to-” Luke shut up pretty quickly when Noah’s mouth was on his again. And maybe he was just starting to slide a hand down, under the blanket, when there was a loud knock on the window. They sprang apart.   
  
“Hello there,” a figure waved from outside the car. “Don’t mind me, I’m just your friendly neighborhood mechanic, trying to find his wayward little brother stuck in a ditch. But if you two want to keep on sucking face in there, I can come back.”   
  
“Jesus Christ, Aaron!” Luke rolled his eyes. “What the hell?”   
  
Aaron pulled the door open, and Luke had to grab Noah’s shoulders to keep him from spilling out of the car. “Dad got your message like twenty minutes ago. You guys okay? I mean, of course you are, you’re making out in the backseat of a sports car like this is some teen romance shit. But-”   
  
“Aaron oh my god shut up,” he said in one breath. He buried his face in Noah’s shoulder, trying to hide a groan.   
  
“Hey Noah,” he could  _feel_  his brother’s smirk.   
  
“Hey Aaron,” Noah still held tight to Luke. “Thanks for coming.”   
  
“No problem. We’ll just leave this part out of the story when we report to Emma, right?” Aaron yanked on both their arms, pulling them free of the car. “Come on, we’ll come back for the car in the morning. Right now, you two need to get home and get warm. In a more G-rated way.”   
  
Luke didn’t let go of Noah for the walk to Aaron’s truck, and Noah didn’t let go of him. As they climbed into the cab, Luke waited for Aaron to run back to the bed for more blankets, then turned to Noah. “Hey.” He kissed him quickly when Noah looked to him. “You don’t have to wait anymore, okay? For us. We’re here. I don’t think we’ve ever left.”   
  
Noah smiled at him, wide and happy, but Aaron’s return stopped him from saying anything in reply. “Okay,” Aaron dropped a few blankets on their laps and started up the truck. “Heat’s cranked up, it’s time to go home. You guys ready?”   
  
“Yeah,” Luke couldn’t help but grin, feeling Noah’s hand search through layers of blankets to find his and hold on. “Yeah. We’re ready.”


End file.
